Seeds of Democracy: Learning from the Xingu Network
October 8, 2025
4 p.m. Mountain Time
CASE E330
What if the most effective conservation isn't happening in boardrooms or government offices, but in the hands of Indigenous women collecting seeds along Brazilian riverbanks?
Join us October 8th at 4 PM in CASE E330 as the Media Economies Design Lab welcomes Lia Rezende Domingues from the Xingu Seed Network—a remarkable organization that's proving democracy and environmental restoration go hand in hand.
Beyond Top-Down Conservation
The Xingu Seed Network isn't your typical environmental organization. Born from the grassroots in 2007, this Brazilian collective has grown into a 700-member network where Indigenous peoples, family farmers, and urban communities work together to heal degraded Amazon and Cerrado landscapes. Their secret? Participatory governance that puts decision-making power directly in the hands of those doing the work.
Through their General Assembly—where every member holds equal voting rights—they've created a self-governing system that has:
- Restored over 10,800 hectares of degraded land
- Collected 220+ native seed species
- Generated nearly R$8.5 million in income for collectors (80% women)
- Built a transparent governance model documented in their "Collector's Book"
Why This Matters for Governance Ecologies
This event connects directly to MEDLab's project, which is building a global repository of diverse governance practices. The Xingu Network represents a powerful example of how traditional ecological knowledge can be integrated with democratic organizational structures to create both environmental and social transformation.
Their approach challenges conventional conservation models by demonstrating that effective ecosystem restoration emerges not from external management, but from empowering communities to govern themselves while working in respectful relationship with their territories.
Join the Conversation
Come discover how seed collection became a vehicle for community empowerment, and how participatory governance can heal both landscapes and social structures. Lia will share insights from the field about building democratic systems that actually work—one seed, one vote, one restored hectare at a time..